The world of lettings, has in the main for 3 decades, not changed much… We still work for landlords helping them find tenants, either via a let only or fully managed service, collecting the rent and forwarding onto landlords and dealing with the tenancy...

If you want to BEAT the Tenant Fee Ban, then some changes need to be made to your business model, in fact you need to find a way to seriously increase your income without increasing your workload... right? I know, it's tough... I hear you. It's a challenge, you want...

It's a serious question... what are they doing? And is it what you think it is? Last year, one of my property managers was complaining they were sooo busy and couldn't get through their daily tasks, so I asked them what was taking up all of their time. I must admit,...

This isn’t a legal guide on what to do in your business to combat the issues of GDPR, if that is what you want look elsewhere, I’m sure David Cox, will be writing something on this somewhere, but instead this is a thought provoking piece on why GDPR is here and what...

So many Letting Agents do a great job, killing themselves to get done the thousands and thousands of micro detail activities that make us a letting Agency, believing that by giving great service their business will grow, and to a certain point that is correct... But...

Earlier this month, I was part of the 110,000 people that had to be “repatriated” to the UK, because of the Monarch demise, I was on the last Monarch flight out of Birmingham, before they announced at 4am, on Sunday morning, the company had gone BUST. What a shock!...

As I go around speaking to agents from all across the country, I keep hearing the same thing, where are all the staff... from city centre, to rural, from northern to southern, the same problem exists everywhere, it’s very hard to find and hire good staff to work in...

Is everything adding up in your business? So far, I’ve gone through many ideas for increasing income and replacing potential lost income for when the tenant fee ban hits. You need to give yourself your best chance - providing new levels of service, improving...

Maintaining the growth of your business and ensuring it goes from strength to strength should be a priority for every letting agent. When the market hits hard times, especially when legislation like the tenant fee ban is introduced, a solid growth strategy is what...

The first blog in my tenant fee ban series started the discussion on optimising your agency’s income sources. There were two areas I highlighted that were key to generating more income - increasing leads and increasing the value of your services. This gives a sound...

The upcoming tenant fee ban is causing a lot of commotion in the world of lettings. While it’s a stretch to say there’s panic in the industry, the uncertainty over when this ban will be exacted and the terms behind it mean it’s best practice for letting agents to...

As a lettings agency owner, there is no greater feeling than knowing you have a highly-motivated team of letting agents to help spur growth and ensure you hit your targets. They want to prove their ability and make things happen. However, despite their best efforts,...

When it comes to event planning, you’ve probably got a it all sorted. You’ve planned to either exhibit or attend, and you’ve got your marketing collateral printed and ready. On paper, you’ve got all the tools to succeed, and to generate those all-important leads. The...

With heads still reeling from the announcement of the Tenant Fee ban, I’ve been travelling the country to speak with other agents, to discuss how we can deal with it. It’s more important than ever that we start talking about this now. We’re losing fees that have to be...

It’s not always easy to market your services in an innovative way, especially when the market is saturated with every other letting agent trying to do the same thing. It becomes increasingly important to think outside the box, and make sure you're making the most...

With the ongoing, upward increase in consumers searching online to research/purchase products and services, it’s important to think about your letting agency’s online presence. Is it presenting you in the best possible light? Are your website and social media channels...

Running a business can be a really lonely place, and not only that, you expected to be experts in every detail, with no one to refer to for help, so it’s not surprising that right now, hundreds of letting agents across the country are amalgamating, joining forces and...

Chatting to my husband the other day we were discussing how different we are in our investment styles, (he is a heavy share investor who also has property and business and I am heavy business, with property and very small share portfolio) and we were discussing what...

In case you missed the last two articles, this is the third in a series covering how as letting agents you can treble your turnover, without increasing your fees (unless you want to of course!) In the previous pieces I covered how to massively increase the number of...

So last week we looked at the first steps in how you can treble your turnover, and we covered massively increasing your database and leads into the business by creating lower level data capture resources and mechanisms. If you missed it, you can find the...

What are the options if you want to grow your income as a letting agent? It's quite simple really - you either need to get more clients or charge more. It seems obvious, but let's look a bit deeper. I believe there are 3 ways to generate more income for a letting...

She asked me: “So how did you grow your business? I just seem to have stood still over the last year, I’m sure there is just too much competition!” It’s one of those questions that really made me stop and think, as I wanted to give her a good answer, and I found...

Letting agency teams are no different to any other teams, except that as a business, within a letting agency, you will had extremely diverse teams, made up of people with completely different character. The staff in the “NEW BUSINESS” or lettings department which are...

Sitting here at my villa, that I bought in 2000, it got me thinking, why do we really buy property and does that reason ever change? Growing up in the Margaret Thatcher era of “you’ve got to get your foot on the property ladder” I was as desperate to buy a property as...

Hell yes! But only if you use it properly... and social media on its own, NO. So many people say “I tried social media for my agency, but it just didn’t work” in most cases, what agents do is post a bit each day, and wait for the valuations to come flooding in, but...

As ridiculous as it sounds, business can be so confusing sometimes. You have your bank accounts, you may have your SAGE or similar accountant business management accounts, but these seem to bear no reality towards your cashflow accounts, which seem to take on a life...

A branch manager recently asked me on social media, has the market, changed? We are not getting anywhere near as many leads through as we used to and I just don’t know why. In private messenger, I started asking him his number, the number details, that lead up to an...

I must admit I am a bit of a figures person and I know my numbers, in fact I seem to pre-empt what I’m going to see and I am rarely disappointed, but I did have a shock this week, when reviewing the figures for one of my oldest branches... ...The ratio between...

Imagine the scene: you are walking around Harrods department store, and you see the most beautiful upholstered Victorian chair, with a rich red velvet fabric and dark wood trim. You tentatively look at the price tag almost scared to look… what sort of price tag would...

Recently I appeared on "This Week in Property" where I'm talking about my journey in property and lettings and the 10 things you should consider as a letting agent. You can catch the full episode by heading over to this link:...

If you are a property investor, you are probably experiencing a few things: Difficulty finding great property deals that stack up Never having enough free cash to buy the deals you want A headache building, with all the properties you have bought that need managing...

When considering launching a business or growing one you have already started, it is important to identify where you are heading so that you can set clear goals and targets... With a letting agency, the business is built around providing services for others and...

Many letting agents set out with really good intentions of being the best agent in the town and then at some point become completely stuck. They get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work that goes into fully compliant back-end property management and client...

When I started my first letting agency in 1990, some 26 years ago, I thought all I needed was a tenancy agreement and a few to let boards and I was off. A couple of adverts in the paper and the business started to flow in. How simple things were. But even then, in a...

I was talking to a landlord at a networking event last week. He was explaining that, when it comes to letting his property, he has no idea what all the fuss is about. He gets his files and move-ins done in just 10 minutes, so why on Earth would he consider outsourcing...